Restaurants generate high volumes of grease that are discharged via roof mounted exhaust systems. Discharged grease may accumulate on a rooftop and lead to deterioration, as well as pose an extreme fire hazard.
Various systems have been developed to contain grease discharged via roof mounted exhaust systems; however, such systems suffer from limitations that restrict their utility.
Many conventional grease containment assemblies use filters, absorbents, and/or grease separating media disposed within a receptacle such as a duct or basin arrange to receive grease discharged (e.g., via a pipe or spout) from a roof-mounted grease exhauster. In systems utilizing grease separating and/or absorbent media, such media must be periodically changed to avoid release of grease onto a rooftop. Rooftop environments are subject to unpredictable amounts of rainfall, and incident rain may contact grease discharged by a rooftop grease exhauster. When rooftop environments are exposed to significant rainfall, a duct or basin containing grease separating media may overflow, causing grease to saturate the rooftop and pose a fire hazard. It would be desirable to minimize possibility of uncontrolled discharge of grease (e.g., overflow) from a grease containment system.
Although roof-mounted grease exhausters are intended to discharge liquid grease via a pipe or spout, in practice, significant amounts of liquid grease may also leak onto a pedestal to which a grease exhauster is mounted, and then flow from the pedestal to a rooftop (e.g., roofing) surface. It would be desirable to catch grease discharged onto a grease exhauster pedestal and prevent such grease from contacting a rooftop surface.
It can be burdensome for personnel to frequently access restaurant rooftops to check saturation status of grease separating and/or absorbent media, and such media can be expensive to change. It would be desirable to reduce the frequency with which grease containment assemblies must be accessed. It would also be desirable to minimize or eliminate the need for grease separating and/or absorbent media.
Rooftop grease exhausters are provided in numerous configurations and are installed in highly variable conditions, such as in relation to roof pitch, and in proximity to building structural elements and other rooftop-mounted mechanical equipment. It would be desirable to provide grease containment assemblies capable of accommodating highly variable rooftop grease exhauster installation conditions, without requiring shop fabrication of site-specific custom pieces (e.g., via sheet metal), and without requiring highly skilled labor to install grease containment assemblies.
Rooftop grease containment systems may be difficult to clean. It would be desirable to facilitate cleaning of rooftop grease containment systems in a simple, rapid, and effective manner.
A need therefore exist for improved grease containment systems and methods for use with rooftop mounted grease exhausters.